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Thanks to y'all for such a quick responds. Ok, now what do y'all recommend?

What kind of hammock are you using?

Are you backpacking and counting grams or car camping and not too worried about ounces?

Whoopie slings, toggles and marlin spike and tree huggers are lightweight and a great way to go but there is a slight learning curve.

Webbing and buckles are a bit heavier and quite simple.

When going with webbing, go with polyester, not nylon for the reasons mentioned above.

I have converted my Hennessey Hammock to whoopie slings and tree huggers. I use the same set up on my Nano 7 and my generic hammock. My wife and son like their webbing and buckles on their Blackbirds. My old DIY hammock is simply poly webbing that I tie with a Speer 4 wrap friction knot. MacEntyre posted an instructional video for a Mors Bowline that is another hardware free webbing set up.

Do you ever get down to Aggieland? I'd be happy to help you out with different types of suspensions.

Paul is not promoting himself, but click his link to Arrowhead Equipment - He can set you up with whoopie slings if you choose to go that way or webbing if you prefer that, and you can be assured of good service and a good value for your dollar.

Check out this thread and some of the links on it to give you some food for thought.

Last edited by UncleMJM; 11-22-2011 at 22:35.
Reason: one more thought...

lets say you have 10 feet of amsteel blue....7/64ths of an inch wide...it has an average breaking strength of 1600lbs.

Load that line to 160 pounds, 10% load of breaking strength, and you have 0.46% of stretch meaning over 10 feet multiplied by 0.46% equals 0.552 inches of stretch...compared to anything else that stretch will be much..much more as with my first experiences with paracord, roughly 3 inches my best guess...meaning your butt could hit the ground (ive had it happen with paracord.)

does paracord stretch to much to use in your suspension system along with nylon strap? I hope I ask this question with the right terminology, I am very new to Hammock hanging and learning a lot from y'all.

I did a search and could not find anything about this.

another thing to remember is that for every knot you tie into your suspension, you reduce the amount of weight that the rope can suspend.

So you've got your 550 paracord (make sure it's the real deal w/the strings inside it) and you start adding knots to it. Plus your weight when you're in the hammock isn't a dead weight. You tend to move about, or at least I do. And when I move, that causes more stress on the cords and those knots. And that's usually the point where you find yourself on the ground. So you might hang a few times with that paracord and everything goes well. But the chance that it will break is very high. I personally wont chance it. I'd rather use a rope with a much higher strength. Amsteel Blue (and "blue" is not a color but the name of this rope) is the rope I use. And it's not good to tie knots into this rope because it's so slippery. I tried!! And one night I had a bowline knot slip!!! Who would have thought that a bowline would slip!! It did. I had a stopper knot on the end rope coming out of the bowline and that was the only reason I wasn't flat on the ground. With Amsteel Blue you need to splice it. That's why you'll hear on here that we use whoopie slings. It's a way of splicing the Amsteel Blue that works very well. Paracord has it's uses but as a suspension for your hammock, it doesn't do so good.

I guess it depends on diff factors. Granted I wouldn't use paracord on my main hammock setup. But for my Grand Trunk UL, I've actually had luck. On my GT that I'll bring around to throw up quickly and lounge around, I actually use only paracord. To attach to tree, I use a 'true' piece of paracord, doubled over, with a series of sqaure knots every inch or so. I'll wrap the cord around the tree and through itself, and hook the hammock on the knot that fits best. On first use it a little stretch, but has been flawless since. Maybe the doubled line and knots help. But it does soak up water when rains, and there are plenty of better materials out there. Just food for thought. On my JRB setup, I do use a real suspension consisting of some new black amsteel and webbing straps. I asked the same Q so I tried it. Pre stretch it, it will work and be strong enough, but there are better choices.

Paracord and any other Nylon will stretch quite a bit if used for a hammock suspension. However the much larger problem is that it's not any where close to strong enough. Many people have learned that lesson the sore way with it snapping and dropping them. That however does not stop folks from trying.....add padding to the ground if you give it a go.

I am one of those "sore way" lesson learners. For about 2 years, I had paracord in my suspension with no issues. (I'm 6'4" and about 200lbs.) Each end of the hammock was whipped with paracord, then attached to two rings. I fed nylon webbing around the tree, through a loop in the webbing, then into the rings.

The breaking incident happened when I had to tie in to posts that were only about 5' tall, so in order to not have my behind dragging on the ground I tied in tight. The angle from the anchor point to the hammock end must have been less than 10 degrees--you want to shoot for 30 degrees, as I understand it, for the optimum setup. After about 2 minutes rigged like that, my head end paracord snapped. I fashioned a replacement for the head end and 2 minutes later the foot end paracord snapped. Fortunately, I was only about 6" from the ground when these breaks happened.

So will paracord hold you? Quite possibly, especially if you set up with care. If you're willing to risk a fall, then that's up to you. But I appreciate the peace of mind that I get now by using whoopie slings.

I still use paracord.. Stubborn I rekon.. Not for suspension though..
I still use the stock one Brandon sells.. Paracord can be used instead of a biner at the tree tie off, I use it for my ridge line and tarp tie offs, is it the best option? No.. I haven't experienced the extreme stretching some folks talk about.
Been through days of wind rain without having to re adjust much.. It does gain weight in the rain........... Stubborn Stan paracord fella...

We would be one step closer to world peace, if everyone slept in a hammock..

another thing to remember is that for every knot you tie into your suspension, you reduce the amount of weight that the rope can suspend.

So you've got your 550 paracord (make sure it's the real deal w/the strings inside it) and you start adding knots to it. Plus your weight when you're in the hammock isn't a dead weight. You tend to move about, or at least I do. And when I move, that causes more stress on the cords and those knots. And that's usually the point where you find yourself on the ground. So you might hang a few times with that paracord and everything goes well. But the chance that it will break is very high. I personally wont chance it. I'd rather use a rope with a much higher strength. Amsteel Blue (and "blue" is not a color but the name of this rope) is the rope I use. And it's not good to tie knots into this rope because it's so slippery. I tried!! And one night I had a bowline knot slip!!! Who would have thought that a bowline would slip!! It did. I had a stopper knot on the end rope coming out of the bowline and that was the only reason I wasn't flat on the ground. With Amsteel Blue you need to splice it. That's why you'll hear on here that we use whoopie slings. It's a way of splicing the Amsteel Blue that works very well. Paracord has it's uses but as a suspension for your hammock, it doesn't do so good.

I guess it depends on diff factors. Granted I wouldn't use paracord on my main hammock setup. But for my Grand Trunk UL, I've actually had luck. On my GT that I'll bring around to throw up quickly and lounge around, I actually use only paracord. To attach to tree, I use a 'true' piece of paracord, doubled over, with a series of sqaure knots every inch or so. I'll wrap the cord around the tree and through itself, and hook the hammock on the knot that fits best. On first use it a little stretch, but has been flawless since. Maybe the doubled line and knots help. But it does soak up water when rains, and there are plenty of better materials out there. Just food for thought. On my JRB setup, I do use a real suspension consisting of some new black amsteel and webbing straps. I asked the same Q so I tried it. Pre stretch it, it will work and be strong enough, but there are better choices.

I am one of those "sore way" lesson learners. For about 2 years, I had paracord in my suspension with no issues. (I'm 6'4" and about 200lbs.) Each end of the hammock was whipped with paracord, then attached to two rings. I fed nylon webbing around the tree, through a loop in the webbing, then into the rings.

The breaking incident happened when I had to tie in to posts that were only about 5' tall, so in order to not have my behind dragging on the ground I tied in tight. The angle from the anchor point to the hammock end must have been less than 10 degrees--you want to shoot for 30 degrees, as I understand it, for the optimum setup. After about 2 minutes rigged like that, my head end paracord snapped. I fashioned a replacement for the head end and 2 minutes later the foot end paracord snapped. Fortunately, I was only about 6" from the ground when these breaks happened.

So will paracord hold you? Quite possibly, especially if you set up with care. If you're willing to risk a fall, then that's up to you. But I appreciate the peace of mind that I get now by using whoopie slings.

Thanks you glad you were not hurt. After the post and mishaps don't think I will be using the Paracord, I am 6 foot 235 so you are close to my size. thanks for the post and info.